This was a great game for the Avalanche. Over their last few games they had been getting outchanced and they had actually started to lose some games. I would not have been surprised to see the Avalanche come out at home and play a similar game against a Phoenix team that is much better than I expected coming into the year. In fact, at the beginning of the season I picked the Coyotes and Avalanche to finish 15th and 14th respectively. That prediciton definitely isn't looking so good. At any rate, this was one of Colorado's stronger EV efforts of the year especially from the EV groups that actually had significant ice time.

On special teams, after five straight games without either allowing or scoring a power play goal the Avalanche managed to do both. Unfortunately for them, the power play didn't actually look much better while the penalty kill looked markedly worse. The Coyotes both generated a lot of chances and played the majority of the time in the Avalanche zone every time they had the man advantage. Despite the fact that the Avalanche had four extra minutes of power play time, they still ended the night -3 on special teams chances.

This was also Mr. Budaj's first start of the season and he performed well, especially on the penalty kill. Unlike a lot of teams in their Conference the Avalanche should be able to count on reasonably competent goaltending from two men (and in the case of Anderson, much better than that) which is hugely important for a team that gets outshot as frequently as the Avs. In the end, a well-deserved win for the Avalanche.